The province is asking for our advice – the public‘s – in how to open schools in September. As much as I value democracy, getting advice on a public health issue from random people with the time and energy to respond makes me very nervous. Consulting the public might be a
Continue readingAuthor: Marie Snyder
A Puff of Absurdity: On Gun Control
I’ve been observing many gun control arguments online and in the classroom (also online) recently. I’ve written about this before, once after Sandy Hook and then after a Stoneman Douglas shooting surviver put the onus on school staff to keep kids safe. This one’s closer to home, so I finally
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Reich’s The System
Robert Reich, an economist and professor of economics at Princeton who served under Ford, Carter, and Clinton administrations, had a great discussion with Michael Sandel, political philosophy professor at Harvard, about Reich’s new book: The System: Who Rigged It and How to Fix It. I can only find the 60 minute
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Teaching Online – a Month in Review
A recent poll of Canadian students aged 10-17 found that, “When it comes to online classes, most say they’re keeping up (75%) but are largely unmotivated (60%) and disliking the arrangement (57%). It stands to reason then, that one of the biggest worries for Canada’s young people includes missing out
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: We’re Getting Re-opened in the Morning!
I’m picturing Alfred Doolittle singing that title. Here’s a rundown of my facebook page, where information mainly comes in images, saved here for the memories of what it was like the day before Ontario re-opened for business. Remember, just because you CAN go shopping again, doesn’t mean you SHOULD! According
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Chris Hedges on Revolution, Media, Prison, Corruption, and Hope
Chris Hedges, a former war correspondent for the New York Times until they didn’t like his anti-American coverage of the Iraq invasion, and an ordained minister, recently walked away (or was fired) from Truthdig in solidarity with Bob Scheer, and now he’s in the middle of writing a book, but he
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Planet of the Humans Review
So I just noticed I’m getting a lot of traffic for a post I wrote 8 months ago that advertised the release. Back then I wrote about some concerns with the film. I actually watched the film on Tuesday, Earth Day’s eve. It’s free for the next month. The first
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: I’m Fine, Really
“You’d say I’m putting you on, but it’s no joke, it’s doing me harm You know I can’t sleep, I can’t stop my brain You know it’s three weeks, I’m going insane you know. I’d give you everything I’ve got for a little peace of mind.”
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Truths We Now Hold as More Clearly Self Evident
We’re learning so much from this virus, about the world and about ourselves. Here’s a list of things I hope we take away from it all. These are things we already know, but now we know with a little more certainty and more clearly. * Life is unpredictable. Our calendars
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Expectation
How we see our lives and how we expect things to go for us is life or death right now, sanity or madness. This has been an emotionally exhausting week! Not knowing is difficult, and there’s so much up in the air right now. It reminds me of when I was
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The New Normal
Politico has a very thorough run down of life as we’ll soon come to know it from a variety of people. Here are my favourite bits. It’s all pretty hopeful: COMMUNITY: We know now that touching things, being with other people and breathing the air in an enclosed space can
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: What are the Chances We’ll Learn Anything from This?
It’s fascinating to watch behaviours now that we’re stuck together in limbo. In my little house, we are all perfectly healthy; we’re just more together. This should be a piece of cake! My kids shopped last Friday night, very late, and, since the stores were packed with everyone else who
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Everything is F*ucked: a Book Critique
I read this book last summer, but people are suddenly talking about it (and his earlier book) all over the place for some reason – maybe because we’re just seeing that things are really messed up. Even my youngest asked to borrow it, so it’s time to revisit. I give
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Pandemics and the Climate
Everyone staying at home might buy us a bit more time to finalize policies that will actually mitigate climate change, if we actually care to do save even more lives. Juan Cole explains the connection between pandemics and climate change in this Truthdig article: There is an exact analogy between Trump’s treatment
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Can Public School Teachers Teach from Home?
Last Thursday, after getting a series of emails from the school board and OSSTF about concerns with many students travelling over the March Break and returning with an incubating virus that could infect each school, we suddenly found out from the CBC that we’re shutting down for the two weeks
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: COVID 19 and Pascal
Kevin Patterson at The Walrus has a great piece on the coronavirus. It’s different than the flu, faster, and our high-density living spaces aren’t helping contain it: “Famine and war routinely bring civilizations low, but though he trots closely beside those two, the horseman who carries off the most has
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: A Bit about Cancel Culture and Academic Freedom
I’ve written before about how I support free speech but don’t support giving platforms to “White Nationalists” or neo-Nazis or any other racist group who could use the venue to garner more followers. My concern is with audience members who might be easily led or looking for a place to
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Slowing Climate Change Doesn’t Have to be so Confusing!!
Some people insist that we can’t put it on individuals to make the changes necessary to affect climate; we have to change industry and vote differently and all that jazz. But it’s only with individual efforts to change our behaviours AND to effect industry and petition politicians, as individuals, that
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Getting My Head Around Privilege and Protest
This is a bit of a round up on this issue, just of opposing positions floating around social media. First let’s look at Andrew Scheer’s comments: On “ideologically motivated protestors”: I hate how the existence of ‘ideologies’ has been spun to be a problem in the world. I get the
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Resisting Decadence
“America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.” – Oscar Wilde Ross Douthat explores our trajectory that has led us to decadence, which he defines as, “cultural and intellectual exhaustion at a high level of material prosperity and technological development. Under decadence, Barzun
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